


Two

by Sandstripe



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Multi, Podfic Available, Soulmate Tattoos, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1391332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandstripe/pseuds/Sandstripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you turn 18 the name of your soulmate appears somewhere on your body.<br/>When Michael Jones turns 18 something a bit different happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two

The blaring of his alarm jerks Michael to almost-consciousness. He stares blankly ahead for a few seconds trying to convince himself that getting out of bed is something worthwhile. _It's Thursday, so almost the weekend. That's a plus. And wasn't there something else happening today? It was something important, right?_ After staring into space for a few seconds trying to remember, it suddenly dawned on him _why_ exactly this particular Thursday was so important and Michael is instantly sitting up in bed and searching for it. The soulmate tattoo that should have appeared somewhere on him during the night. 

That was why he was so tired; actually getting to sleep last night had been a nightmare because he was so excited and his brain wouldn't shut up long enough for him to fall asleep. He eventually finds the tattoo on his upper right shoulder. _Lindsay Elise Tuggey._ Smiling like an idiot and feeling rather sappy, he runs his fingers over it, just taking in the name. He can't believe that finally the wait is over. Or, rather, just starting because now he has to find her. Sighing and shaking his head slightly, he gets up out of bed and tries not to let his thoughts continue on the path they were currently heading down. _Don't be a pessimist._ Michael chides himself. 

He's not going to let anything ruin this important morning. 

Michael starts going about his daily routine, getting ready for school. He's pulling on his pants when he sees it. Just a smudge of black out of the corner of his eye on his left hip. Frowning, he looks closer. The name _Gavin David Free_ is emblazoned on his skin right at the top of his hip bone. _What the fuck?_

He's running to the bathroom and the sink before he even registers that he's moving. Grabbing a hand towel he wets it and starts furiously trying to rub off both the names hoping that one of them is just a cruel trick being played on him by his brother. Neither smudge or run in the slightest. 

They're both real. 

Fuck. 

How can he have two soulmate tattoos? He can't ever recall having known someone who had two, has never even heard of such a thing happening. How is he supposed to tell his parents that he not only has _two tattoos_ but that one is obviously a guy's name. Michael has been very careful to hide his bisexuality from his parents. They were both a bit to close minded to try and explain something like that to. All they would hear is that he was gay. 

Starring at himself and the tattoos in the mirror for several minutes, he comes to a decision. He will not tell them. Even though the thought fills him with shame, he will hide Gavin's tattoo. As far as anyone will know, he only has the one. It will be easier for everyone involved and he won’t have to deal with his parents' gay freak out.

Heading back into his bedroom, he quickly finishes getting dressed and heads downstairs for breakfast. As soon as Michael rounds the corner into the kitchen his mom pounces on him, excitedly asking to see his tattoo. He carefully rolls up the short cup sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal Lindsay's name, his mom cooing over it while Michael tries to swallow the guilt rising in his throat and ignore the burning of his hip.

_This is going to be a long day._

When his mom finally stops gushing over his tattoo and asks him what he wants for his birthday breakfast he just sighs and says that he's not very hungry. 

She frowns at him, “Are you sure you don't want just a pancake or something, honey?”

Michael sighs, “I guess a pancake would be ok.” He says, plopping into a chair at the table, mostly so that she won't ask him anymore questions. His mom is still looking at him with concern though, “Are you alright, hun? You seem awfully upset about something.” 

“I'm fine.” He lies, Gavin's name still burning on his hip.

-

School is both worse and better than having to endure his family at the table, grilling him about his tattoo. Everyone _does_ ask him about his soulmate mark but he easily avoids having to answer by stealthy changing the subject. A few he eventually ends up having to show Lindsay's name to because they won't stop pestering him about it but for the most part he gets by without it. It just doesn't seem right that he should have to hide one while showing off the other, it fills him with a sense of guilt so thick he can barely swallow it down. But if it broke that he woke up with two soulmate tattoos, it would spread through the school like wildfire and then eventually find its way back to his parents. These things always did.

He finally does break after lunch though, while he and Ray are heading to class a bit early and there’s no one around.

“So, where did it manifest?” Ray asks him about of the blue.

“What?”

“Your tattoo, where did it manifest?” 

Michael looks at Ray for a second, and then silently rolls up his sleeve. 

Ray reads the name silently and then smiles at Michael, “Aren’t you lucky, getting a girl. Guess you don't need to tell your douchebag parents after all.” 

Ray is one of the very few people to know about Michael's sexuality, as he'd drunkenly spilled the beans when they'd stolen a bottle of his dad's whiskey one evening and had proceeded to get fucking shitfaced. The next morning had been hell, exacerbated by the fact that his dad had caught them and proceeded to ground Michael for a month and call Ray's parents who had done the same to him.

Michael simply stares at him for a moment, considering. Then, while Ray is still chuckling to himself, he pulls him into one of the little alcoves that each classroom door has. 

“What the fuck dude?”

Michael glares at him, “If you tell _anyone_ about this I will personally skin you alive, you hear me?” 

“Seriously, what the fuck Michael? I didn't do anything to you!”

“Answer me.”

“Alright, alright. I won't tell. Jeez. I don't even know what the fuck I’m not supposed to talk about!” Ray says throwing his hands up in the air.

“This.”

Michael pulls down the waistband of his pants, revealing Gavin's name. The rush of relief he gets from showing someone is a little ridiculous and it almost knocks him off his feet. 

Ray is staring at him, bug-eyed. “Dude...” he says, some how sounding both awed and pitying at the same time.

“I know.” Michael says letting go of his jeans feeling them snap back into place. 

Ray is still starting at his hip. “You have-”

“I know, Ray.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Hell if I know. I'm just trying to get through today. It fucking sucks that I have to hide it, I feel like I’m going to drown in guilt every time someone asks who my soulmate is and I have to lie and say it's just Lindsay.”

“Damn dude. How are your parents taking it?” Ray asks, finally looking up to meet his eyes.

“They don't know. And I don't plan on telling them.” Michael says bitterly, “They don't deserve to know for one thing, and I don't really want to deal with how I know they'll treat it. They'll say that Lindsay is _obviously_ who I’m supposed to have and completely ignore Gavin's existence.”

Ray makes a face and nods, agreeing. “Yeah, I don't envy you, man. Sorry about what I said.”

Michael sighs, “It's alright. You didn't know. Come on let's just get class over with, I can't think about this anymore. I just couldn't not tell anyone anymore, it felt like I was going to pop if I didn't.”

Ray doesn't say anything to that, just nods and follows Michael into their history class. Only two more classes and Michael will be done with this awful school day and he can go home. He's got research to do. And it doesn’t involve this paper on WWII.

-

When Michael gets home he heads straight for his bedroom and computer. Ray's question of how this could be possible had been bothering him all day. Well, it had been bothering him before Ray even mentioned it, but him asking only intensified his need for answers.

He starts with the basics. Things he should have payed more attention to in school. He spends about an hour going through the history of the tattoos, how long they've been appearing, theories about where they might have come from. But what he really pays attention to is the different ideas about how and why people get the names they do. After several hours of looking Michael finds only a handful of cases of someone ever having more than one soulmate tattoo. The general consensus for this phenomena being that these few peoples' souls were split so perfectly down the middle that whatever mystical force that decides the tattoos couldn't chose between the two and thus gave them both. 

Michael pauses to rub both his tattoos. So his soul is split. He's not sure how he feels about this at first, but then after trying to imagine only having one of them and failing, he decides to trust the universe because obviously it got something right. Explaining this to both Lindsay and Gavin will be a bitch but he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.

He's about to start the second leg of his research, namely trying to find _his_ Gavin and Lindsay, when his mom calls him down for dinner.

“Lot of homework?” She asks when he comes into the kitchen.

“Huh?”

“You've been in your room all afternoon. We figured that you were studying or something.” His brother says from the table. 

“Oh, uh, yeah, I've got a test in chem on Monday.” Which was true, but obliviously not what Michael had been doing all afternoon. His brother gives him a suspicious look but before he can say anything Michael changes the subject.

The rest of dinner is like that, Michael dodging questions and getting strange looks from Mitchell. When he's finally allowed to return to his room, he's barely alone for more than a second before Mitchell is barging into his room after him. “Alright, what gives?”

“What?”

“You've been acting weird all day, and there's no way you've been studying all this time. The longest you've ever studied anything over thirty minutes was that time you got stuck on Riku in Kingdom Hearts and had to go look up how to kill him.”

“He was a dick to kill and you know it.”

“Only because you hadn't leveled enough. But stop changing to subject, seriously, what's going on?”

“Nothing Mich, I really was just studying.”

“Bull _shit_ you were. Is this about your soulmate tattoo?” He lowers his voice, “Are you upset you didn't get a guy?”

Michael jumps a bit at the mention of the tattoos. “No, that's not the problem.”

“Then what is?”

Michael rubs his hip. Should he tell him? How much does he actually trust Mitchell? Looking at the sincere expression of concern on his face Michael decides to take the plunge and pulls down his waist band.

Mitchell still looks confused so Michael shifts a bit and moves closer. He can see the exact moment Mitchell sees the tattoo, and realizes what it is. 

“Holy fuck dude. No wonder you've been so jumpy and distant today.”

Michael nods, “ _Don't_ say anything to Mom and Dad; as far as they know I only have the one.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t put you in that position. I may tease you, but your still my brother and I wouldn't want you to be ridiculed for something that you have no control over.”

“Thank you.” Michael says with a small sigh of relief.

“No problem.” Mitchell smiles and gives him a hug, “Let me know if you need help hiding it.”

Michael nods again, and Mitchell leaves to go to his own room. Michael takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Where the hell did all that sincerity come from? His bother is a little shit, just like him, and rarely ever shows that much genuine emotion. It's kinda freaking him out but hey, he'll take what he can get.

Shaking himself he settles back down in front of his computer. Time to get back to work.

Staring at his computer he tries to think of the best way to go about this. Finding either of his soulmates will be tricky. There _are_ sites that help with the process, that have access to various national databases but they are all extremely expensive and only the truly desperate use them because of the steep price. Facebook could be a starting point, but that's not exactly a reliable source. 

In the end that's what he ends up using though. Still, it's not exactly helpful. He finds only one Lindsay Tuggey in the system and her middle name ends up being Anne. Of the two Gavins he finds one is in his thirties and the other lives in Texas. Michael gets excited for a second, he's the same age as him and has the right last name. His middle isn't listed, but then, after searching through his public photos, he sees this Gavin's tattoo on his forearm, just peeking out from under his sleeve. _James M-_

_Knew that was too easy._

Eventually, Michael flops back on his bed after about an hour or so of looking through various social media sites. He's found nothing. Staring at his ceiling he wonders how long it will be before he finds even one of his mates, let alone both.

-

It's a question he asks himself a lot over the next several years. Waiting patiently for someone is not easy, especially when everyone around you is meeting their someone left and right. In a way Michael felt he almost had it worse than most people because he knew he was not waiting for one person, but two.

He still asks every Lindsay and Gavin he comes across for their last name though. He's never had a match and by the time he turns twenty-four, Michael's stopped getting that excited thrill in his stomach when he asks.

When he'd turned twenty his parents offered to get him a subscription to one of the official sites for soulmate searching. He'd turned them down for the simple fact that those sites only helped you find _one_ name and if he were to sign up again it would be more money out of his own pocket. And he was pretty damn sure that the government would be alerted to the fact that he was looking for more than one name, that being one of the safeguards on those types of sites to prevent people from abusing the system, and he _really didn't_ want to become a science experiment. Which is exactly what would happen when they came to investigate and found he had two tattoos. 

So he chose to stick it out the old fashioned way. Or at least somewhat, he did still search on social media sites every now and then. Just on the off chance that either of his mates had decided to get with the fucking times and make a profile on _something._ He hadn't had any luck so far but there's always a chance, right? He had to do something to keep that hope alive, because as he got older it was looking more and more like they didn't _want_ to be found. Michael tried not to think like that to often but, sometimes, he just couldn't help it.

That was part of the reason that he started doing Rage Quit, it was a way to take the edge off. Something that let him vent when he was feeling overwhelmed and depressed about the whole soulmate situation or just life in general. 

He hadn't started his channel or the show to get famous, in actuality it had been Ray's suggestion to post the videos in the first place. Michael had been skeptical but figured what the hell, why not? No harm in adding to the entertainment of the YouTube community. What he didn't expect was to get as popular as he did, as fast as he did. Barely a year after he'd started his channel he'd come home from work to find an email from RoosterTeeth waiting for him. Offering him a job. To say he'd been excited would have been putting it lightly, working at his dream job? Hell yes, sign him up!

-

It's been a massively hectic week, but Michael is finally on his way out to his new job with RoosterTeeth, and he’s both terrified and so excited he feels like he could vibrate right out of his skin. Though the three and a half hour flight he could do without. 

He’s currently on the last leg of his journey, sitting on the Tarmac waiting for take off. Michael was one of the first to board his connecting flight, the other passengers are just starting to get on and Michael is starting to lean on the more annoyed side of the waiting spectrum.

 _Come on, how hard can it be to walk down an isle, shove your shit in the overhead and sit the fuck down?_

Apparently, very. 

He’s idly playing on his phone to try and distract himself when someone brushes his hip and he very suddenly feels hot and cold and tingly all over. He grabs his hip on instinct and looks up to see who it is that's brushed him. 

The guy looks to be in his mid twenties, like he himself is, and has very wild fly-away hair that’s light brown in color. And he is holding his hand, staring at Michael with a very odd expression on his face. It’s then that Michael notices the single fingerless glove on the hand he's holding, the right, and it suddenly clicks who this person must be. 

Before Michael can find his words the guy says, “Sorry, mate.” in a slightly choked tone that sounds vaguely British and begins to move down the isle again. Michael is faster though, standing quickly and grabbing the guy's arm, pulling him into to the row of seats directly behind his own and says in a rush, “Sorry, this is going to sound really weird but is your name Gavin by any chance?” 

The guy gives him a startled look and nods, “How do you know that?” 

Michael smiles and says “I’ll tell you if you tell me your full name.” He needs to hear the words from Gavin's own mouth before he comes across as an even bigger weirdo than he already has.

“…Gavin David Free.” Gavin says after a pause and sounding more confused by the second. 

Fuck. _Yes._ “Well congratulations, Gavin,” Michael says pulling down his jeans just slightly, revealing his soul mate tattoo, “You just found your soul mate.”

Gavin stares, shocked, while Michael smirks. He was right, its written all over Gavin’s face, this is _his_ Gavin. Finally. 

Eventually Gavin looks up “Micool?” He asks tentatively, his accent causing him to horribly mispronounce his name. That _should_ annoy Michael but it just makes Gavin sound all the more endearing.

“Yeah, Gav. It’s me.” he says, his smirk softening into more of a genuine smile. 

“Your really _my_ Micool? Michael Vincent Jones?” Gavin says pulling off his glove and relieving his own tattoo. 

Michael doesn't need to read the name on Gavin's hand but he does anyway, something warm settling into his stomach when he sees his own name in that elegant black writing. His smile doesn’t falter, only grows wider and he nods, looking up at Gavin again. 

Gavin makes a sort of squeak noise and throws his arms around Michael in one of the tightest bear hugs he’s ever had. “Where have you bloody _been_ all this time? I tried looking, but do you have any smeging clue how many Michael Jones there are in the world?”

Michael sakes his head against Gavin’s neck. 

“A bloody _lot_.” 

“Well I’m here now. Better late than never, right?”

Gavin hums into his skin in agreement. 

Several seconds later, they’re still clinging to each other awkwardly over the seats and Michael’s neck is starting to cramp. “Hey Gav?” Another hum. “Could you let go of me so we can sit down?” Gavin huffs a laugh but eases his grip enough so that Michael can turn around in his seat again and Gavin can sit down next to him, never letting go of him completely. Like he’s afraid that if he does Michael will disappear. 

“I’m not going anywhere, promise.” Michael says answering the unvoiced concern. Gavin gives him a smile and settles into his side. 

The fact that Michael is allowing such a large amount of PDA is rather strange for him and he should probably tell Gavin to not get used to it, but right now he just wants to sit with his soulmate and bask in the wonderful feeling of the wait finally being over. But then his burning shoulder reminds him that this was only half the battle. He still has to find Lindsay. 

And somehow explain the situation to both of them. 

_That_ won’t be a fun conversation. 

To distract himself he quietly asks Gavin where he’s headed. “I’m actually on my way back to Austin. Just finished a con and have to be back to record.” 

Something like unease settles into Michael's gut. “Oh?” he asks, trying to sound nonchalant. “Where do you work?” 

“This little online company called RoosterTeeth. “

Michael feels lightheaded, his stomach dropping. No fucking _wonder_ Gavin looked slightly familiar! His Gavin was the Gavin from RoosterTeeth, one of their long time employees. Though he was rarely on camera, mostly focused with helping direct RvB. He was only ever on camera for a quick _'Oh, this is Gavin our director!'_ or something along those lines, which was why Michael hadn’t recognized him right off the bat. Or realized that he was his soulmate for that matter. Holy shit he felt slow right now. He’d been watching RT for how long now and it never even _occurred_ him to find out Gavin’s last name let alone his middle. 

“Gav your going to think I’m a moron for not realizing who you were sooner but that’s actually where I’m headed to. I just got hired last week.” Gavin’s head snaps up so fast that Michael idly wonders if a person can give themselves whiplash. “I’ve been brought on to be part if the new Achievement Hunter thing. ” 

Gavin is now staring at him so hard that Michael feels a bit like a bug under a microscope. “…I’m being moved into that to. Geoff said that he wanted me to be a more on-camera person since every time I am, our views spike. Probably something to do with my accent he said.” Gavin’s says after a minute, sounding dazed rather than mad like Michael expected. 

“Guess the universe wanted to make doubly sure that we met.” Michael says trying lighten the mood. Slowly Gavin smiles, and then rests his head back on Michael, seeming to put Michael's being dumb behind him. “I guess.”

By the time they’re finally taking off Michael realizes that he’s been idly running his fingers through Gavin’s hair for the past twenty minutes. He keeps doing it though because Gavin will occasionally let out these little pleased noises that Michael finds absolutely adorable. And about a half hour later they fall sleep like that, curled up in each other with Gavin nuzzled into Michael like a cat and Michael’s arm around Gavin, hand still in his fly-away hair. 

-

When they land in Austin, Gavin offers to put Michael up for the night, but he declines, "I've actually already managed to get an apartment out here, less than a block from the office. Stroke of luck really," Michael looks a little sheepish, "I've uh kinda been looking at apartments out here for a few months actually. Didn't think I'd ever get the job but, eh I was bored one night and had some free time. Doesn't hurt to look, right? Became a bit if a habit to look at places I'd like to live someday when I had nothing better to do."

His weird habit had payed off in the end. Right after his call to RoosterTeeth accepting the job and getting a few details, he'd gotten on the phone to the real estate agent for the apartment complex he'd been looking at for a few weeks. Burnie _had_ offered to put him up in a hotel until they found a more permanent solution, and apparently Jack had also offered to let him stay at his place for a few months. But Michael had always valued his independence so he went the more expensive route. If things should fall through, it would be his problem, but then it felt more real this way too. It was a reassurance that this wasn't some crazy dream he was having and that this was in fact actually happening.

Picking up his luggage from baggage claim wasn't too much of a hassle, thankfully. He'd been on many a flight where that had caused the most headache. One time in particular stuck out in his head when, _somehow_ , the airport had mistakenly forwarded his bags to _Canada_ of all places. It had taken two weeks before he saw his luggage again. Thankfully that had happened on the return trip, so he wasn't stranded without his luggage on vacation, but it had still been a nightmare.

He said goodbye to Gavin at the cab pickup line. Giving him a bear hug just as tight as the one Gavin had given him on the plane when they'd met, Michael whispered, "See you tomorrow, Gav." in his ear.

"Bye Micool." Gavin said back just as quietly, returning the hug and letting go a little reluctantly. Michael got into the cab and gave the cabbie the address to his new place, turning in his seat to watch Gavin as he gets smaller and smaller standing at the cab line. Just before Gavin gets to small to see he raises his hand and waves at Michael's shrinking cab. Michael raises his hand to wave back but by the time that he does, Gavin's disappeared. Sighing he turns back around. The slight warmth he gets in his hip whenever Gavin touches him is fading, and Michael rubs at the spot willing it to stay longer.

 _One down._ He thinks, _One to go._

-

Walking into his new apartment, Michael looks around at all the empty space. There hadn't been time to forward his things from Jersey ahead of him before he got out here, it had taken the whole week just to pack and get it all on the truck. The only thing that the apartment had at the moment were basic kitchen appliances, no actual furniture. But he'd learned the hard way in collage not to get pre-fernished places, the furniture was always shit. It would be another few days before the rest of his things arrived but he could deal for now. Not like he'd never slept on the floor before, a few days wouldn't kill him.

Michael headed into what would become his bedroom eventually and dumped his suitcase in the corner. Pulling out his laptop and plugging it into the wall he settled in for a night of lazing around on the internet, not much else he could do. His Xbox and TV were in the moving van.

-

Being in the RoosterTeeth lobby is a bit overwhelming; he's actually standing here, on his first day of work and he's not having some vivid dream. And to make matters even better, Gavin pokes his head out of the newly-designated Achievement Hunter office and makes that squeal noise again upon seeing Michael standing there.

"Hi Michael!"

"Hey Gavin." Michael returns, walking over to him. "So, you gonna give me the tour or what?"

Gavin nods excitedly, "Ok, so there's not much in our office yet," he says gesturing to the room at large.

He's not kidding either, four desks, a small bookshelf half filled with games, and a couch are all that's in there.

"But Geoff says that, depending on how popular we get, we may end up hiring one or two more people; that'll be some time next year at the earliest though."

"Could you even fit two more desks in here?" While the office doesn't have a lot of stuff in it, the things it _does_ have kinda fill the room as is.

"Eh, we'll figure something out if it comes to that."

Michael gives him a look.

"What? Geoff'll be the one with the headache, not me."

Michael shakes his head, "Alright, whatever. Gonna show me the rest of the place?"

Gavin nods again. "Follow me."

The rest of the tour doesn't take long. Gavin just kinda wonders around the office pointing out things. The whole thing takes maybe half an hour tops. By the time they've made their way back to the AH office Geoff and Jack have appeared.

"Ah, that's what happened to my new employee. Gav show you around?"

"Yes, sir."

Geoff makes a face, "No need to suck up just yet, wait until you've fucked up. Or I'm kicking your ass in a game."

Michael laughs and nods, “Got it.”

“Alright, enough fucking around we've got work to do.”

-

Michael is on his way into work a few weeks later, trying to stave off the headache from last night. That is the last time he challenges Gavin to a drinking contest on a week night. They'd both gotten absolutely smashed and Gavin hadn't left until well after three. Michael had told him to just crash at his place but he'd insisted on going home. “Not gonna do the walk of shame when we haven't even done the fun bit yet.”

Michael had gone red, shut up and allowed Gavin to call himself a cab.

He's still in his own little world, smiling to himself just slightly, despite the pain in his head, when a redhead brushes past him running into the office yelling a “Sorry!” over her shoulder. Michael is too distracted by the sudden and intense warm-cold tingling in his shoulder where she'd brushed him to respond. 

No fucking way.

He's only ever felt that specific sensation once before.

When Gavin had first touched him.

Did he just meet his second soul mate? And they _both_ work at RoosterTeeth? How in the- _what are even the odds of that?!_

To late he realizes that she's disappeared around the corner and he hadn't said anything to stop her.

He makes an aborted move to go after her, but before he can get more than a step, Gavin sticks his head out of the AH office and gives him a rather pained smile. Looks like he's not fairing any better in the headache department.

“Come on Michael, we've got to get this Let's Play recorded if we're going to upload it tomorrow.”

Michael debated with himself for a second, feeling torn. He still has yet to tell Gavin about his second tattoo so he can't exactly say that he's just found his other soulmate. But going into the office and acting like normal just feels... wrong. 

“Micool?”

“Y-Yeah, Ok. I'm coming.” 

Now is not the time to try and explain. He'll look for Lindsay during their lunch break.

-

The day crawls on. It feels to Michael like he will die of old age before lunch finally rolls around, and he's not doing a very good job of hiding his impatience either. Gavin's been watching him on and off all day. Michael’s even caught Geoff and Jack giving him weird looks. 

When Geoff finally calls lunch Michael gives, he'll admit, a rather flimsy excuse to stay at the office rather than go to Jersey Mikes with the rest of them. 

“Are you sure? You've been acting cagey all day.”

“Yeah, I've got to get this edited.”

“Alright...”

Gavin gives him one last worried look over his shoulder and then follows Jack out the door.

As soon as Michael hears the front door click closed he's up and out of the office looking for Lindsay. He still can't believe that he's been here nearly two weeks and it's taken until today for him to run into her. 

He tries upstairs first. Michael's spent most of his time either in the AH office or on the ground level in the main building, so it stands to reason that her desk would be somewhere that he doesn't frequent. The first two rooms he sticks his head into are empty. But he finds her in the third.

She looks up from her computer, expectant. After a pause she says, “Uh, Hi? Can I help you?”

Michael swallows and begins to feel an inclining of doubt. What if he was wrong? 

No. He knew what he'd felt.

“Um, Hi. You ran into me this morning? At the front door?”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I was in a bit of a hurry.” She waits a few more seconds for him to continue, but it's like Michael's brain has frozen. He's not sure how to go about this anymore. Nerves he hadn't given himself time to feel with Gavin are starting to creep in on him. “... Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Um, no, actually, when you bumped into me I... felt this...” Michael trails off. How does he say this without sounding extremely creepy? 

_I felt this tingling sensation when you touched me and now I think you might be my soulmate?_

Yeah, no. 

He switches tactics, “What's your full name?”

She looks startled at first, but after a few moments she answers, “Lindsay Elise Tuggey. Why do you want to know? And who are you?”

He can't keep the smile off his face now. “Because I was right. I'm your soulmate.” He pulls up his shirt sleeve reviling her name. She stares at him, much the same way Gavin had. And then suddenly she's up and inspecting the tattoo. After a minute or so of scrutiny she steps back and smiles at him, and pulls up her own sleeve reviling his name. “Hi Michael.” She says, grinning. Then, she lets out a joyous laugh and envelops him in a hug. 

Hugging her back Michael suddenly feels a sense of trepidation. He's now meet both of his soulmates. The only problem is, neither of them know about the other. 

Fuck. 

-

Over the next several weeks, Michael is more and more thankful that Gavin wanted to keep their status as soulmates on the down low. As far as anyone in the office knows, they just became very fast friends. This is why Lindsay didn't call him out when he reviled his second tattoo. But what surprises Michael is that she _also_ wants to keep them being soulmates quiet. “Just for right now.” He knows he should be a bit suspicious of the fact that both of his soulmates want to hide that very fact. And under normal circumstances he might even feel a bit offended, but right now it gives him more time to think. More time to plan his way out of this mess he'd gotten himself into. 

At this point he's known Gavin for a month and a half, and Lindsay for just under a month. He's managed to juggle both of them around each other though it hasn't been easy. It's also probably not the smartest thing he could have done in this situation and there were times he felt like a cheating boyfriend. But it hadn't seemed fair to spring the double tattoos on them when they'd known him for such a short amount of time.

But he had to come up with a plan quickly, because things with both of them were getting to the point where clothing was going to start factoring into things less and less. 

He'd told both Lindsay and Gavin that he wanted this weekend to himself, that the Let's Play thing they were trying out had him beat. Gavin had agreed, saying that he was pretty wiped out too. 

The popularity of Achievement Hunter was growing at a rate that no one had predicted, so much so that Geoff was entertaining the idea of hiring a fifth person a lot sooner than he'd planned. Michael had quietly slipped Ray's application into the pile Geoff had. He'd mentioned Ray a few times and Geoff had seemed interested. Michael figured putting in a good word with him wasn't a bad thing, you never knew after all.

So, Michael had the weekend to himself to figure out how the fuck he was going to handle this. Eventually, after stressing and worrying for almost a day straight, he decided that telling them separately would be better than trying to do it in a group. That way he could focus on them individually and not have to referee between the two being hurt. It would also prevent cat fights.

He would do Gavin first. It only seemed fair, he'd meet Gavin first and had known him longer, so he hoped that he had a better guess of how he would react. Lindsay on the other hand, he wasn't so sure of. She was more protective of her feelings and she reacted to things in a more controlled way. 

Put it this way, he figured Gavin was more likely to start crying. Lindsay was more likely to punch him.

He spends the rest of his weekend planning on what to say and how to say it. He doesn't want to come off to callus or seem like he was being greedy. If this was going to work he'd have to tread lightly and be mindful of what he said.

He was also wary of the empathy portion of the bond. He hadn't researched to much into it when he did his initial search back in high school, mainly because he was more worried about the fact that he had _two fucking tattoos_. But he's started to notice within the last week or so that he could guess Gavin's moods more easily, and when to drop by Lindsay's office 'Just to visit because he felt like it', it was just little things at first, but it only occurred to him during his weekend away from everyone that it was more than that. It would also explain the phantom sensations he got from their respective tattoos.

When he'd done his initial search, he'd come across an article that had listed various rare phenomena that happened with soulmates. One of the things had been a very slight empathy link between the two soulmates. Apparently it was like the impression of an impression of a very strong emotion from your mate. If focused the person could detect with a more fine detail what their mate was feeling. With practice this bond could get even stronger. Michael hadn't thought to much of it, much more interested in the small section on double tattoos, but the article stuck out in his mind now. Neither Gavin or Lindsay had said anything about feeling feelings from him, but that could be because they weren't as aware of everything they did and said around him. He, on the other hand kinda had to be, to make sure not to let anything slip. He's looking forward to not having to hide this from them anymore. 

-

It's Friday and Michael is anxiously waiting for Gavin to get to his apartment for their weekly Games and Bevs night. He's listening so hard for it, he nearly jumps out of his skin when the doorbell actually rings. Taking a deep breath he gets up and goes to open the door. 

“Hey, Boi!” Gavin greets cheerfully. 

Michael smiles, “Hey Boi, come in.”

“You ready for me to kick your ass in Halo?”

“You wish!”

Gavin laughs and starts setting up a map. 

Michael almost loses himself in the playing, though after a few rounds the butterflies in his stomach get to be to much and he's about to turn to Gavin and start talking but Gavin beats him to it. 

“You Ok, Boi? Your very quiet. And your radiating nervousness.”

Michael's train of thought gets derailed for a second. “You don't mean that literally, right?”

Gavin pauses. “...Um, yeah actually. I do. I've been picking up on your emotions for a few days now; usually its just a flash and it's gone. But I've been able to feel your nerves for about ten minutes now. Seriously, what's up?”

“Well I'm glad it's not just me.” He says, mostly to himself, _I wonder if Lindsay is doing the same and just not mentioning it?_ “But, uh, I've actually got to talk to you about something else.”

Gavin pauses the game and looks at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. Michael takes another deep breath. Fuck this is not easy; and he's going to have to do this all over again with Lindsay, Goddamn. “Ok, I'm... not really sure how to start so bare with me here, I'm just gonna come out and say it.” Another breath. “I have two soulmate tattoos.”

Gavin's face goes completely blank. 

It's like a light's been flipped, one second he was open and waiting, the next his face is completely closed off.

Michael tries to hold off his panic, giving Gavin time to process, but when he stays that way Michael can feel the metaphorical walls start to close in. 

“Gav. Please say something.”

“You lied to me.”

“No I - ”

“You bloody _said_ that we were soulmates. You've let me think that I'd finally found him, found my One and now your telling me that was all just, what? Some joke?” Gavin's voice has started to wobble, and Michael wants nothing more to reach out and hold him, but he knows it wouldn’t be welcome right now. 

“No, Gav, let me explain - ”

Gavin goes to get off the couch saying in a hurt, slightly hysterical voice, “Explain?! You want to explain? How the _fuck_ can you explain something like this??” 

Michael is quick to pull him back onto the couch, “If you would just _listen_ , I'll tell you!”

Taking Gavin's face in both his hands so that he has to look him in the eye, Michael starts, “I did not lie to you. You _are_ my soulmate. When I woke up on my 18th birthday I found two tattoos. Yours on my hip,” Michael takes one of his hands and rolls up his right sleeve, “And Lindsay's on my shoulder.” Gavin's eyes are now locked on the name he's just reviled. Michael waits for him to figure it out, waits for the next explosion. _Give him a second._

“That's - She works at RoosterTeeth!” 

“Yes, she does.”

“Have you told her about - ?”

“You? No. But she does know about me. I figured that you should be the first one I told about the double tattoos since I met you first.”

Michael can see that Gavin is starting to come out of his initial panic and rejection, just a little bit. At least enough that he's started to want answers. “How is this possible?” It's said in a hard tone, and it's not a question. It's a demand.

“Honestly, I'm still not sure of the reason myself. The closest explanation I could find was that my soul is split so perfectly down the middle that whatever power-that-be decided that they couldn't choose between you two and just gave me both of you.”

Michael's moved his hands down to hold Gavin's hands by this point, and Gavin looks down at their joined hands as he thinks this over. 

“I'm really still your soulmate and you haven't been lying to me for the past two months?” He asks after a while in a small voice.

“ _Yes_ , I'm still your soulmate. And _no_ I haven't been lying to you, I swear.” 

Gavin goes quiet again for a little while. Then, eventually, he looks up. “Alright.”

“Alright?”

Gavin gives him a tentative smile, “Yeah. Now let's get back to me kicking your ass.” He turns and grabs his controller again, unpausing and going off in search of Michael’s character. Michael watches him for a second, hardly believing that was the end of it. Something told him that it wasn't, but he ignored the pessimistic side of his brain in favor of picking up his own controller and proceeding to melee kill Gavin’s character just as he came around the wall. 

“Bollocks!”

“I'm not gonna make it that easy for you Gav, come on you should know that by now!” Michael says, playing along, acting normal like Gavin so obviously wants him to. He'll let him have time to think and deal with this. And when he's ready to talk about it again, Michael will be there for him and listen.

Though as the night goes on Michael periodically concentrates just enough to sense and check Gavin's emotions. At first he's a mess, but as the night progresses, he seems to start to normalize. He's also much less tense beside Michael by the end of their last game of Halo several hours later, but by that point it could easily be because of the amount of alcohol Gavin's consumed rather than him coming to terms with the situation.

-

The next morning the first thing Michael notices is his rather pronounced headache. It's not as bad has he's had in the past (reason number one why he will never again challenge Geoff to a drinking contest) but it's still rather persistently making itself known. 

Groaning he cautiously opens his eyes, realizing for the first time that he is still in the living room, somehow having ended up on the floor _in front_ of the couch rather than _on_ the damn thing. Thankfully one of them had had the foresight to close the drapes the night before, so his eyes are not immediately assaulted by the harsh Texas rays. He sits up with a grunt and tries to remember if he should be looking for Gavin in his apartment, since he wasn't on the couch, or if he'd gone home the night before. 

His question is answered almost as soon as it crosses his mind, however, when he hears movement in the kitchen. 

“Michael? You finally up?” Gavin's voice calls.

Michael thinks he grunts in response, not really awake enough to be coherent. The hangover was certainly not helping in that respect. 

Gavin rounds the wall separating the living room and kitchen with two steaming mugs in hand. 

Michael instantly perks up at the thought of coffee. He makes grabby hands at Gavin, still non-verbal. 

Gavin huffs a laugh at him and hands over the drink, plopping down on the couch with his own mug. 

“So, I've been thinking about your whole double soulmate tattoo thing.” Gavin starts off hesitantly. 

“Ok.” Michael says after taking a sip of the rather strong coffee, prompting Gavin to continue. 

“I wish you would have told me sooner. Maybe not as soon as we met, but defiantly after we'd known each other for a week or two.”

Michael nods, waiting for the rest.

“And while I'm hurt you didn't tell me sooner, I'm not mad at you.” Gavin looks at Michael for the first time since he started speaking, “I'm willing to give this weird three-way relationship a try if Lindsay is. Oh don't look so surprised, what, did you think I would make you choose between us? Or not guess that trying a polyamorous relationship was what you were going to suggest?”

“Honestly I thought you were going to try to be all noble and shit, and say to just stay with Lindsay and not you.”

Gavin snorts, “Yeah right. I'm not that selfless. I want you all to myself, but I'm willing to share with Lindsay.”

Gavin gives him a cheeky smile.

“You're an idiot.” Michael says affectionately. 

This has gone better than he ever dreamed. He can only hope that telling Lindsay goes half as well.

-

Michael gave himself a few days in between telling Gav and telling Linds, the entire process had taken a lot out of him and he didn't think he would make it through back-to-back reviles. Gavin stayed at his place for the weekend, Michael not really wanting to be alone. Come Monday he feels a little less stressed about the whole ordeal, Gavin taking the news so well had boosted his confidence in telling his other soulmate. 

Over the weekend they'd decided to practice and mess around with the empathy link, just for something to do when video games got boring. They'd both gotten rather good at sensing surface emotions, not to the level of subconsciously, but enough so that it only took the slightest bit of concentration to pick them up. Gavin was especially good at it, it taking almost no effort on his part. Even when they dug deeper, it was as easy as breathing for him. Natural talent, he called it. Michael had agreed, impressed.

Walking into the Achievement Hunter office on Monday felt weird, it was like the events of the weekend had had no effect on his workplace, everything still as it was. No one was aware of the huge weight that had been lifted off his chest. Or of the one that was still there. Geoff and Jack still greeted them like normal, everything was still in place on his desk, nothing to indicate what they'd dealt with over the weekend. It almost felt like walking back in time. But then he'd looked over to Gavin and seen the serene smile on his face, marred only by the hint of sadness and caution in his eyes.

He'd told Gavin that he planned on telling Lindsay this afternoon, as they already had plans to go back to his place for dinner, so he'd said to _not_ show up unannounced, as was Gavin's habit. 

Gavin had laughed, nodded, and kissed Michael's forehead. “Come on, love. We're going to be late for work.” And then he'd bounded away to the car before Michael could return the favor. Cheeky little shit.

Michael knew he was worried about how this was going to turn out though, how Lindsay was going to react, how this could cause Michael serious emotional pain if it went sideways. Gavin had tried to be optimistic for him but they both knew how this could go. In the end Gavin took to holding his hand when the others weren't looking. Michael wouldn’t ever tell him this but it had helped him stay grounded that day, and not have the almost panic attack he'd had before telling Gavin. 

Despite their worrying, the day went rather normally. They recorded a few achievement guides, a Let's Play, and Geoff announced that he was going to start interviewing people for a fifth position. Michael's head had snapped up at that last one, hopeful. Geoff had just smiled secretly at him and turned back to his desk, giving nothing away. 

When it finally came time for them to go home, Michael started gathering his things. Gavin's hand, which had been holding his for the last hour no matter who saw, squeezed his own and then let go.

"I've already talked to Geoff, he's giving me a ride home."

"Oh, Ok. Good." Michael was glad someone had though about that, since he certainly hadn't. To preoccupied with worrying about how telling Lindsay was going to go to think about the fact that he had been taking Gavin home for the last month or so.

He gave Gavin one last smile, who returned with mouthing a 'Good luck' to him, and headed upstairs to pick up Lindsay.

The drive to his apartment was fairly quiet, it seemed that Lindsay was content to stay in her head. Michael's own head on the other hand was running laps, coming up with worst case scenarios and just generally freaking out. He wasn't sure why he was so much more nervous about telling Lindsay than he had been about telling Gavin, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Gavin was... Well Gavin. Something about him just radiated clam. He hardly ever let things get to him. 

They cooked dinner together, dancing around each other in the kitchen with practiced ease. It had become something of a habit with them, cooking together. Neither of them were professional chefs by any stretch of the imagination but they could both navigate their way around a kitchen without to much hassle.

It also helped Michael relax and focus on something _other_ than his fucking tattoo for a while.

When the food was finally ready they sat down and dug in, both famished as lunch had been several hours earlier. They talked about work mostly, funny how two people could work at the same small company and yet have completely different days. Lindsay's main focus at the moment was preparing to do video podcasts regularly. They'd tried one about a month ago and the response hand been overwhelmingly positive.

When they finished, Lindsay suggested a movie. Michael had shrugged and agreed, letting her pick. He didn't really care what they watched. Not like he was going to be able to focus anyway. This assumption was proven correct when just twenty minutes in Lindsay paused it and turned to face him.

"Aright what's up?"

"Hm?" Michael wanted to continue to play dumb, to pretend and put this off as long as possible. That foreboding feeling that had been sitting in his gut all day had been getting steadily worse over the last half hour.

"Don't 'hm' me, you've been fidgeting ever since we stared this. If you don't want to watch it, why didn't you say something?"

"It's not the movie." To be perfectly honest Michael wasn't even sure what movie it was. Glancing at the screen and seeing Captain America, told him it was something Marvel related; weather it was Avengers or his stand alone movie, Michael neither knew nor cared.

"Well what's up with you then?"

Michael sighs inwardly. Well here he goes again. "I've got to talk to you about something and I'm really nervous about how your going to react."

"Well I gotta tell you, they way your going about telling me is making me just as nervous."

"I know, sorry." _I handled this better the first time._ He adds internally.

"Go on then."

Another sigh, this one physical. "Ok. I - I have two soulmate tattoos."

There's a beat, just like with Gavin. Then,

“You have two _what?_ ”

“Soul - ”

“No! No I heard you, I'm just trying to understand the joke, because right now, I'm not laughing!”

“Lindsay, clam down, please just let me expl - ”

“Let you explain huh? And how exactly are you going to explain this? That you just _happen_ to have two tattoos, _no really they're both real I swear! I'm not a disgusting pig who got your name tattooed on me just so I could sleep with you! Really!_ Ugh, I've met guys like you before, usually they're fake or temporary tattoos but I will give it you, yours is at least real. I've had guys try to pass sharpie off as the real thing.” She laughs bitterly, “ _He_ won't ever try that again with a girl, I made sure of that!”

Michael is a little dumbfounded, “People have actually done that to you?”

Lindsay glares at him in answer. “So who's the _lucky_ girl that gets you as their real soulmate?” She asks sarcastically.

“...Gavin.”

Lindsay stares at him and then pulls back her hand. Michael sees the punch coming and ducks. “You _asshole!_ Gavin?! Gavin Free?! The one that _works with us?!_ ”

Michael nods.

“Well, isn't that something! I hope you two are _happy_ together!” 

And with that, she's storming for the door. Michael takes about three seconds to find his voice again, “No, Lindsay wait! _Please!_ I really can explain! My soul is - ” 

The door slams shut in his face. “Split between both of you...”

-

Text from Gavvers

10:14 PM  
So, how'd it go?

10:18 PM  
Michael?

10:24 PM  
Micool, is everything ok?

10:50 PM  
I'll be there in 15

-

Gavin walks into a dark apartment. 

“Micool?”

Nothing. 

While he's feeling for the light, he thinks he hears someone sniffle. Finally, after a minute or so of searching, he finds the living room light and flicks it on. 

Michael is sitting in the middle of his couch, curled up into a ball, staring at nothing. There are tear tracks running down his face, both dried and fresh. 

He jumps a bit when Gavin sits down next to him, “I take it she took it badly?”

“Uh huh.”

“Come here.” Gavin pulls Michael into his lap and wraps his arms around him. It occurs to Michael that now that Gavin is here, there is a weird juxtaposition between his absolutely _aching_ shoulder and the pleasant humming of his hip.

“You came.”

“Of course, Micool.”

“But I didn't call you.”

“Micool, I may only hold half of your soul, but you hold all of mine. Of course I came, you didn't _need_ to call.” _I could_ feel _you screaming for me._

Michael lets out a bitter laugh, “You may just get your wish to have me all to yourself after all.”

He shakes his head in denial, “Not like this. Never like this. You're in so much emotional pain right now I'm surprised you can even talk.” He hugs Michael tighter. “We'll fix this.”

“Good luck with that.”

-

It took a week before Gavin couldn't stand the waves of misery coming off of Michael anymore. Michael had fallen asleep not long after Gavin had said they'd fix things with Lindsay. The emotional stress had been keeping him awake and being wrapped in the soulmate that _wasn't_ out for his blood had soothed him enough so that he could pass out.

Gavin had let him sleep, eventually moving them to Michael's bed when his back could no longer take sitting on the couch.

The next morning he had tried to get Michael to just go _talk_ to her, but Michael was having none of it. Michael knew he would be neither welcome or given the chance to fix shit. He'd be thrown out on his ass before he'd even said 'Hello'.

Gavin had initially wanted to stay as far out of it as he could; this was between Michael and Lindsay. The fact that he was partially the cause of the issue didn't help matters. 

But come Friday afternoon, Michael was no better. If anything he was worse, Gavin's soothing presence only going so far. He did only hold half of Michael's soul after all.

Gavin looked over at said boy. He was staring off into the middle distance. When he didn't have to be active for the cameras, he just sort of... drifted into this state. For anyone looking at him it would seem like he was just daydreaming. But Gavin had access that most people didn't, and he could feel how depressed and unhappy Michael actually was. He'd been keeping close eye on his boi this entire week, both literally and emotionally. Looking at him now Gavin decided that he'd had enough of his soulmate in pain to last him a lifetime. 

He went to talk to Lindsay.

-

Standing outside her office Gavin suddenly feels nervous, all the vibrato he'd had when he left the office had begun dissipating on his trip up the stairs and finally left him completely when he reached the door to Lindsay's office. Holy shit he was not good at this. He nearly turned around again to run back down stairs to the relative safety of the AH office. But then a particularity thick wave of misery hit him from down stairs and Gavin's resolve returned. He was doing this for Michael, he couldn't be his normal chicken shit self about this. 

Breathing deeply he raised his fist and knocked on the black door in front of him. 

“Yeah? Come on in.”

Gavin stuck his head into the office, “Hi, can I come in or are you gonna bite my head off? I need to talk to you.” Michael hadn't told him much about what had happened exactly when he'd told Lindsay, all he knew was that there had been a lot of yelling. 

Lindsay considered him for a moment. Then she sighed and nodded, “Yeah, I guess I'll hear you out.”

Gavin grinned and stopped using the door as a shield. He sat down in the chair from the extra desk in the office that wasn't currently being used by anyone. He pulled it up to the side of Lindsay's desk so that Gavin felt less like he'd been pulled into the principals' office and more like they were just two friends having a conversation. 

He was searching for a way to start when Lindsay spoke, “If this is about Michael's whole bullshit two-tattoo thing I don't really want to hear it.”

“But it's not bullshit Lindsay! If you had let him explain you'd know that. Believe me I understand how you feel, when he told me I thought he'd been lying to me for two months.”

“Gav, he's been lying to both of us since he _met_ us.”

“I really don't think he has. He said that he thought it'd be unfair of him to dump the fact that he had two tattoos on us when we'd only just met.”

“And what, telling us after knowing us for two months was the better option?”

Gavin sighed, “Alright I'll admit that he bollocks the whole telling us part up, but he really does have both our names. The way he described it to me, the best explanation he could find for why he has two tattoos was his soul is split so perfectly between the both of us that the universe couldn't decide which of us to give him, so it just gave him both of us.”

Lindsay doesn't look convinced, “That's a nice romance novel plot, but I still don't buy it.”

Gavin lets out a groan of frustration. This isn't working, they’re going around in circles. While he's regrouping another wave hits him, this one worse than the last. He lets out a little gasp, damn that one was bad. It seems that since he been left alone by both of his soulmates, Michael is spiraling deeper. Gavin need to get back down stairs soon. 

“How can you feel that and still think that he's lying to you?” Gavin says, mostly to himself.

Lindsay looks confused. “Feel what?”

Gavin stares at her, “You can't feel that?” _The constant misery that my soulmate has been in since you broke his heart? You can't feel that at all?_

“No?”

“No wonder you – Ok, Linds I need you to focus.”

“Focus on what?”

“On your connection to Michael. And don't deny that you have one, I know better than that. I felt mine the second I met him.”

She sighs and does what he asks, “Alright, fine, now what?”

“Reach out to it, try to draw it to you.”

She frowns, “I still don't feel anything.”

Gavin takes her hand, “Here, let me help.” 

Guiding her down the right path is surprisingly easy. Gavin idly wonders if this is because reaching out for that bond is practically second nature to him at this point, had been since he first tried to, or if the fact that they have the same soulmate had something to do with it. 

He knows when Lindsay finally connects with Michael, because she lets out an audible gasp. 

_“Oh, god.”_

“See what I'm talking about? Believe him now?”

When Lindsay opens her eyes, they have tears in them. “How long has be been like that?”

“Since I found him curled up on his sofa after you stormed out.”

She looks at him horror struck. “I – I need to talk to him, apologize.”

“Yeah I think you do. Come on.”

-

Michael looks up when the door opens, and seems a little frighted to see both of them standing there. His eyes snap to Gavin, asking without words what the fuck was going on. Gavin just smiles and motions Lindsay in past him, the office empty save the three of them, and then closes the door behind him. 

“I figured you two needed to talk.” 

“But how did you get her to listen...?”

“He showed me something.” Lindsay says drawing Michael's attention. “I had no idea that soulmates could reach out and feel each other's emotions.”

“Most can't.” Michael croaks out, seemingly stunned that she wasn't yelling at him. “It's a rare thing. Only really strong bonds develop them. And even then it's not a guarantee that both of the mates will be able to do it.” 

The fact that _all three of them_ could had to say something about this little triangle they made. 

Lindsay takes Michael's hand. “I'm sorry for not listening and jumping to conclusions.”

“I'm sorry you've had douchebags try and fake being your soulmate. Believe me if anyone pulls that shit with you again, they'll be wishing they never met you.” He looks up at Gavin, still standing by the door, “That goes for you too, boi.”

“Thanks for the macho man routine but I can handle those dickheads all on my own.” Lindsay says with a smile. 

Gavin laughs, “I'm with Lindsay on this one. I wouldn't want to cross her in a dark alley. But I'll take you up on the beat down. Your much more scary than I am.”

Michael and Lindsay both laugh and shake their heads, “You're an idiot.” Michael says affectionately. 

“Yeah but I'm _your_ idiot.”

“That you are.” Michael looks back to Lindsay, “So you're ok with this?”

“I wouldn't go so far as ok, but I'm warming up to it. Give me some time to figure this out. But I don't want to skin you alive anymore, so that's a plus.” 

Michael is ginning from ear to ear, his mood having skyrocketed in the past few minutes, “Yeah I'd defiantly call that a plus.”

-

It was a slow process, one that took months of tip-toeing around each other and learning boundaries. At first they mostly stuck to the routine that Michael had started while they were still in the dark; one on one dates. Although this time around it was significantly less stressful on Michael's part seeing as he didn't have to hide anymore. It was like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off his chest and he could finally _breathe_ for the first time since the tattoos had shown up on his skin. Everything was finally working out.

There were still awkward moments, even a few fights. Eventually though they started to get into the rhythm of things. 

It was when Lindsay suggested trying a three-way date that things got better for everyone involved. Granted it took some working at; spiting your attention between two people that are both your significant other takes skill and practice. 

Sex was a topic that was skirted around for a month or so before Michael finally lost it, forcing them all to sit down and discuss the situation like the adults that they were. One awkward conversation and a relieved case of blue balls later, everyone was much happier. 

They'd been together for about eight months before anyone from the company found out. Sure the fans had speculated but no one really took any of the theories seriously. Fans loved to ship things after all. 

But when Ray showed up that was blown out of the water. 

There'd been a few issues that had prevented Ray from moving out to Texas right away after he'd been hired, so Geoff had put him in charge of the Achievement Guides and he'd simply recorded them from New York and then sent them to Geoff for finalizing and upload. When it finally became possible for him to make the move, he did so with excitement and swiftness. 

Michael had been dreading it.

Ray was the only one that knew about both his tattoos. Besides his brother, but that was really a non-issue. Mitchell hadn't said anything about Gavin's tattoo since that first day Michael had told him. Michael suspected that he found it easier to just focus on his own problems with his own tattoo rather than try and deal with Michael's as well. Ray however, did ask him on a regular basis about them. He'd been avoiding the questions for months now and he knew as soon as Ray got out here the bubble would be burst and everyone would know. The only problem was that he'd yet to tell either Gavin or Lindsay about this. And when Ray showed up a week early, it caught Michael off guard. 

Literally the first thing out of his mouth when Gavin introduced himself was “Holy shit you found him and didn't tell me?! What about Lindsay, did you find her too?”

Michael had just about strangled him, but the damage was already done. Both Geoff and Jack had been in the office at the time, so there was no containing this. Michael had tried to warn Lindsay via text, but apparently Geoff's yell was loud enough to reach upstairs.

“GAVIN IS YOUR SOULMATE?! AND WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT LINDSAY???” 

Naturally, all hell had broken loose. 

In literal seconds it was all over the office and people were coming to investigate. Lindsay, being the smart person she was, locked her door and yelled at anyone who tried to come in. She had work to do dammit and it was going to get done, no mater the amount of idiocy her boys were perpetuating. The Achievement Hunters had no such luck though and pretty much the next hour was explanations and yelling. 

That evening was no more fun than the afternoon, since Lindsay finally got her chance to lay into Michael for not telling them something _yet again. “Seriously it's like a complex with you!”_ Gavin had already had his chance at the office. 

The make-up sex however, was amazing.

-

They’d just passed their year anniversary when the next bombshell hit. Micheal’s parents were insisting that he come home for Christmas. 

Michael had done a pretty impressive job of keeping his parents out of the loop as far as anything to do with his romantic life, but both Gavin and Lindsay didn't like the idea of hiding Gavin from them. And truthfully Michael didn't either, never really had. So they bought plane tickets and went to Jersey for Christmas. 

Michael felt about ready to crawl out of his skin during the entire flight. Eventually his nerves got to be to much for them to ignore, so Lindsay and Gavin both took a hand to help him calm down. They were a team, they could do this. They fell asleep like that, in an almost perfect mirror to Michael's flight out to Texas a year ago, but this time the circle was complete and he was warm all over with pleasant humming coming from his shoulder and hip.

The actual telling them part was interesting. Confusion. Shock. Anger. Yelling. And finally acceptance. It took a while and a few sore throats to get to that last one but after Michael had screamed at them that _this was how it always was, I was just too afraid of you_ reacting like this _to ever think of telling you! But now I've got both of them and they make me the happiest person on this goddamn planet and if you can't accept that then I guess you just lost a fucking son!_

They'd gotten the message. 

All in all, Christmas was awkward as hell, but Michael left with a sense that, while it would be a long road, at the end of it they would come to an understanding.

-

When the fans finally find out, it was not because of a slip in a tweet, or a leaked picture from one of their Facebooks (Michael insisted that they both get one, it was 2012 for Christsake) no it was because Michael was dumb. 

They've been settled into the podcast for about 45 minutes now, Gavin doing his best to annoy the shit out of Michael. There was a reason that they were hardly ever on the same podcast, this was why.

“No, you're an idiot. You can't jump out of a plane and run down a fucking mountain to save yourself. You'd just go splat!”

“No, see you'd hit it at an angle so that you _wouldn't_ go splat!”

Michael sighs, the argument having gone on for about five minutes, “I hate you, Gavin.”

“I love you Michael.”

Michael snorts and looks back at him from where he'd been staring at the ceiling in defeat, “Yeah, love you to boi.” He says in a warm tone, deciding to just let Gavin be dumb this time.

It takes about four seconds for him to realize what he's just said and why everyone is staring at him. 

They're live.

They've been live for an hour.

And _oh fuck_ he just said that out loud.

It's common knowledge at this point in the company that Gavin, Lindsay and him are an item, but it's been yet to be leaked to the public. A fan had somehow managed to get a hold of one of their pictures from when they'd all gone swimming and leak it to the internet, but thankfully in it you could only see Lindsay's tattoo on Michael's shoulder. There had been a big fangasm over it and shit, but they'd decided to just ignore it for now, their personal lives were theirs not the fandom's, no need to explain their business to them.

But he'd just admitted on camera that he was in love with Gavin. Twitter was probably exploding right this second. He could try and play it off as a joke but the way he'd said it, the fondness in his voice, didn't make that likely to succeed.

Burnie leans away from his mic, “How do you want to handle this?”

Michael makes a face and leans away from his own mic, “Honestly, it'd probably be better if we just come clean now rather than the fans making shit up. Knowing them they probably think that I'm cheating on Lindsay.” He glances at Gavin who has yet to say a word, “You ok with that boi?”

Gavin nods and looks to the control room, motioning Lindsay to come out and join them on the couch. When she appears she doesn't look nearly as annoyed as Michael would have expected. 

“I was already thinking about asking if we could go public soon, all this tip-toeing around it is tiring.” She says as she sits down in between them, answering the unasked questions they're sending her. 

They all lean in together to figure out how exactly they're going to go about this. 

Gavin sits up straight first and looks at the camera. Burnie who's been trying to fill the silence, shuts up.

“Alright before any of you get any wrong ideas, here.” Gavin pulls off the fingerless glove he always wears to hide his soulmate tattoo, turning his hand to show the camera, Michael's name covering a good portion of the back of his hand. The camera zooms back out and Gavin puts his hand down gesturing to Michael for him to go next. Michael shows off Gavin's tattoo for the camera also. 

“Now I know that there's been a picture of me floating around Tumblr and shit with Lindsay's name on my shoulder,” Michael pulls up his shirt sleeve as he says this, Lindsay mimicking him, “And that is a genuine picture. I have both of their names, and they both have mine. If I see _any_ of you giving them shit for this, you will be band from the site. Got it? Good.” Michael looks over to Burnie to make sure that that threat is not an empty one. Burnie gives him a smile and nods in confirmation.

“Alright now that that's settled, I've got to get back to the control room and make sure that they haven’t accidentally hit the color balance and made us all green, so you be good my bois.” Lindsay stands, gives both of them a kiss and heads out. At this point Gavin was just as much her soulmate as Michael, no matter that they didn't share each other's names, so it was only natural.

“Ok! So that was fun. What were we even talking about?” Burnie says, taking back control of the podcast and steering the conversation away from what had just happened.

“Gavin was telling us about his Run Down a Mountain theory, and I was explaining why it _makes no goddamn sense_.”

-

Lying in bed that evening Michael hugs both of them to his sides. They'd avoided looking at their Twitter feeds, saving that for the morning. Hopefully things will have died down a bit by then.

“I love you both, no matter what happens.”

“And we both love you, forever and always.” Lindsay says nuzzling her head into a more comfortable position. Gavin nods into Michael's chest in agreement.

Michael sighs and pulls them even closer. With both of them by his side, he feels like they can take on anything the world throws at them. He feels ready to face tomorrow and every day after, as long as he has them.

Life is difficult, confusing and unpredictable no matter how you slice it. As he'd grown up Michael had figured out some tricks of the trade but ultimately he was just along for the ride. Having someone to ride along with you though, makes even the hard times bearable. Michael's just lucky that he gets to have two passengers.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally it's done! I've been working on this for over a month now. Originally it was only supposed to be about 5,000 words but the story just kept growing. I hope you enjoyed my foray into writing, usually I just read fic but this idea just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out. I love the idea of soulmate markings but I've never found one where someone had two, so I figured I'd try my hand at it. I hope the story doesn't seem too rushed, I had a hard time keeping the pacing of this consistent.
> 
> Anyway reviews are love and I'd love feedback on this.
> 
> EDIT 1/7/15: Rewrote the beginning scene just a bit. I've always hated how rushed it felt and have now finally gone back and fixed it a bit.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Two [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3417041) by [Sandstripe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandstripe/pseuds/Sandstripe)




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